After having a good, active day today, I heat up a lentil and vegetable soup and have a couple beers. I browse my news feed to find Bernie Sanders giving a speech in Washington D.C. as well as the white house.

As of today, 10/June/2016, Sydney time, Hilary Clinton is the presumptive party nominee. And President Obama, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, and Vice President Joe Biden have endorsed her. Naturally this leaves a bit of a bitter taste in my mouth.

I am an unabashed Bernie Sanders supporter. Every issue his campaign is built on is my opinion on the issue. He is a candidate for the optimist. In his speech he reflected on his historical campaign. His campaign was the largest ever funded by single donations. It was paid for by the people, not the million or billion dollar companies.

Bernie Sander’s platform is built entirely to help out the average little guy–on the fundamental problems that hurt the common man from getting ahead. Growing up we often lived paycheck to paycheck, without healthcare for long stretches of time.

Now save for a morbid turn of events, the only way Bernie Sanders will become President is by the grace of persuading super delegates to change their votes to him instead of Clinton

Naturally I think they definitely should vote for him. I truly believe he is what will be best for the country going forward. Maybe they’ll see that–however unlikely.

I will vote for Hilary Clinton if it comes to that. For me she inspires no great cause. No major quest than the quenching of a madman out for his ego apposing her.

*Above was a draft that never made it to post–it remains as it was then. I’ll finish it with an update below.*

It’s now February and this is long been resolved…to a degree. The madman got his ego stroked to the highest office of my nation. I did what I could. I voted for Hilary Clinton from the other side of the world. And a democratic congressmen and senator. Unfortunately only my senator was elected. We got clobbered. But it doesn’t end here.

After the devastation, the resolve mustered. As Bill Maher has said ‘We are still here.’ The revolution Bernie started is going forward, full steam ahead. It’s been heartening to see protests and marches in response to this regression. It seems like liberals and progressives finally have a Tea Party. Hopefully this fervor has longevity.

I was never a Hilary supporter. To a much lesser degree, I was in line of the general criticisms of her. Besides that email scandal–that was just a ridiculous distraction that didn’t amount to anything. We expected her to perform perfectly and she pretty much did. Her opponent was, for some reason, allowed to stumble in like a buffoon and people rewarded him for it.

I still stand by my support for Bernie Sanders but Hilary Clinton deserved better from us. I think she would have made an alright president, at the least. She could have been pulled to the left more. More reasonable, more stable, less, if any, embarrassment. It would have been a much better situation than what is happening now. I have empathized with her and it must have been truly difficult for what she had to do. If anyone can go through such opposition and criticism and keep their sanity I admire them for that.

I don’t think by any stretch she deserved the amount of hate she got but that’s how it went. I’m intrigued by politics and her enough to want to read her biography eventually. I’m sure I’ll have a much better understanding at that point. I hope she doesn’t run again, just because I don’t see her winning a race pretty much ever. But I thank her for what she’s done, wish her well and hope she finds some peace from the chaos she’d had to endure.

Extraordinary events occurred in 2016–2017 seems hellbent on following it into the toilet. Events which I am diametrically in opposition to. This world is taking the eerily uncanny step towards the Orwellian dystopia described in the book 1984. This step comes on the legs of alt-right movements across the globe. I feel it is a moral duty to do all I can to stand up and stop this catastrophe from solidifying in earnest.

I will make no qualms about my opinions as I write more and more. As they are informed by and change according to the evidence, logic, reason, science and truth. Being a philosophy major, I am primarily a truth-seeker, before anything else. Truth. Real, flesh and blood, truth. This word still means something to me. It means a lot to me. And if it means something to you, take this to heart–the death of truth will lead to the death of us all.

I feel truth is my largest political issue. Defending it now is more important than ever before. I will forever be an enemy of actions taken due to prejudices, irrationality, fear, and incompetence; these qualities in positions of power will cause the deaths of people subject to them. Instead we must demand and support candidates who exemplify the qualities of skepticism, humility, and gravitas.Since they seem to be in short supply, we must seek them out or become them ourselves.

As an American living abroad, I have been dismayed with how our political parties have been representing themselves; lacking these important qualities and often basic authenticity and integrity. I admit to feeling helpless at times, being so distant and watching my home country come undone at the seams. Nationalism had never been very strong in my personality but seeing Donald Trump sign executive orders made me realize the reverence I feel for the oval office. His mere presence there feels akin to the destruction of the Library of Alexandria personified.

We can no longer hold back and let ‘Alternative Facts’ hold any sway in our national or global discourse. It is my hope that truth prevails. The truth of Climate Change is the most important truth of our age. It is the largest threat to any nation’s security and well-being. This is it. This moment. It’s now or never. If Climate Change isn’t fought tooth and nail on an individual to global scale–it will end us. I’m not ready to give up. The best way I am fighting this is by living a vegan lifestyle as animal agriculture is the leading cause of climate change. I urge you to watch the documentary Cowspiracy on Netflix. And commit to the most important action you can take against climate change by adopting a vegan lifestyle for the all animals (including humans), and their future vitality, on this planet.

My other major, outrageous problem in the world is income inequality. The 85 richest people in the world have as much wealth as the 3.5 billion poorest. That is completely INSANE to me! We need to hold the rich accountable. Them having it all is causing immense suffering all over the world. When it all comes to a head, I’m sure they’ll repeat the infamous words ‘Let them eat cake.’ I will repeatedly state that I care not for the woes of an excessively rich person. As the pockets of the richest individuals deepen so to does the suffering on this planet.

There are so many issues and topics to explore. Kindness instead of hate. Falsehoods to rebuke. Moral failings to change into proud moments of moral action. The goal is simple. Progress instead of regress. It is a hard path to walk. But it is the right one and at this exceedingly precarious point in our history…it’s the only path remaining.